pace01.14wsbab.doc

WELDON B. STUTZMAN
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
PO BOX 83720
BOISE, IDAHO 83720-0074
[phone]
IDAHO BAR NO. 3283

Street Address for Express Mail:
472 W. WASHINGTON
BOISE, IDAHO 83702-5983

Attorney for the Commission Staff

BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF PACIFICORP TO MODIFY ORDER NO. 28213 TO ELIMINATE 80/10 CALL CENTER RESPONSE CUSTOMER PERFORMANCE STANDARD. )
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CASE NO. PAC-E-01-14

COMMENTS OF THE
COMMISSION STAFF

COMES NOW the Staff of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, by and through its Attorney of record, Weldon B. Stutzman, Deputy Attorney General, in response to Order No. 28891, the Notice of Petition and Notice of Modified Procedure in Case No. PAC-E-01-14 issued on November 9, 2001, and submits the following comments.
On October 16, 2001, a petition was filed by PacifiCorp asking the Commission to modify Order No. 28213 issued November 15, 1999 in Case No. PAC-E-99-1. In that Order the Commission approved the merger of PacifiCorp and ScottishPower plc, subject to various terms and conditions. Included in the conditions ordered by the Commission are performance standards and customer guarantees, including a goal to reduce customer wait time on calls to PacifiCorp’s service center. Within 120 days after completion of the merger, PacifiCorp was to reduce customer wait time for 80% of calls being answered within 30 seconds (“80/30”). Effective January 1, 2001, the goal became 80% of calls answered in 20 seconds (“80/20”), and starting January 1, 2002, 80% of calls are to be answered in 10 seconds (the “80/10” rule). By its Petition, PacifiCorp asks the Commission to eliminate the 80/10 rule.
The Commission Staff agrees with the arguments presented by PacifiCorp in support of its petition. Staff notes that the Company has significantly improved its performance with respect to call answering time. Prior to the merger between PacifiCorp and ScottishPower, PacifiCorp’s goal was to answer 80% of calls within 45 seconds. The results actually achieved for 1998 were 55% of calls answered within 45 seconds at the Portland Business Center and 49% of calls within 45 seconds at the Wasatch Business Center. Judging from complaints filed with the Commission and the Company’s customer satisfaction surveys, customers clearly were dissatisfied with the level of service they were receiving at that time. As required in its merger commitments, PacifiCorp considerably improved its call answering time after the merger was completed. During September 2001, the Company answered 84% of calls from Idaho customers within 20 seconds, exceeding the current requirement of answering 80% of calls within 20 seconds.
In her testimony before the Commission in the PacifiCorp-ScottishPower merger case (PAC-E-99-1), Staff witness Beverly Barker indicated that the generally accepted industry standard for call answer time was 80/20. Setting a goal to improve answer times beyond that level was ambitious, and, in retrospect, perhaps unnecessary. As PacifiCorp now notes in its petition to modify Order No. 28213, “benchmarking data shows that no other electric utility in the U.S. has a higher target than 80 percent of calls answered in 20 seconds”. (Petition, p. 4)
From January through November 26, 2001, no PacifiCorp customers who have filed complaints with the Commission mentioned encountering any problems with respect to call answering time or call hold duration. The lack of complaints, coupled with the Company’s own customer satisfaction surveys that indicate customers are generally satisfied with the current level of performance, is persuasive. Staff believes the goal of answering 80% of calls within 10 seconds would most likely make additional demands on the Company’s resources without a commensurate benefit to customers. Therefore, Staff supports PacifiCorp’s petition to eliminate the 80/10 requirement.

Respectfully submitted this day of November 2001.

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Weldon B. Stutzman
Deputy Attorney General
Technical Staff: Beverly Barker

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STAFF COMMENTS 2 NOVEMBER 30, 2001